From the strange question department (for an even stranger reason) comes the following:

I have a question for you about Beaver! I am working on a film as the food stylist here in Toronto Canada, and I have a scene that requires a baked beaver to be carved into.... believe it or not, we are not allowed to kill a beaver here in Ontario... so I have to fake it! I was hoping, since I see you have braised one before.... if you could give me any tips on what cut or CUTS of meet ( and type of animal) would pass for a baked beaver?... keep in mind I have to have it carved into.

Has anyone out there ever cooked beaver? (For the record, I haven 't.) Tips? Photos? Advice? You'll be doing the Canadian film industry a great service!

Use small whole goat My Mom used to braise a whole small goat in olive oil, we’re talking a whole Gal of EVOO, with 20 to 30 whole garlic cloves, lemon halves, and Rosemary sprigs all placed in a clay pot. It was seasoned with salt and pepper and Mediterranean 7-spice. It was falling off the bone tender and tasty I think the shape and color of the meat should pass for a beaver

But it begs to question, what does Beaver taste like? I am guessing someone will say Chicken.. LOL

Actually, no. It tastes more like muskrat, and that tastes a bit like squirrel. And the old-timer recipes I've got normally use the tail in a pot of beans.

Muskrat is a closer relative to beaver than nutria would be. In fact I'd say that muskrat may be the closest thing to beaver although the tails are different (nutria and muskrat don't have flat, wide tails). Beavers are also a lot bigger than either of them, though.

Steven, have her call a local wild game specialist as we have a number of them up in Canada. One of the ones I know are Wild Game Consultants Ltd. in Edmonton, Alberta. They may or may not be able to provide beaver (though I think they might be able to source it), but they ought to be able to find something similar. Here is their info:

Eating your national animal ?? Anyone have any good Bald Eagle recipes??

No, but read a joke once that said it tastes like a cross between California Condor and Giant Panda....

And I think the beaver is the national animal of Canada because there are so many of the darn things - the common beaver isn't endangered or even threatened. We had a dozen properties flooded out last year, each within 7 miles of my place thanks to these creatures. I even had a bit of flooding on the back part of my property, too.

Now I know why the Robertsons of Duck Dynasty despise them so much. And before anyone accuses me of being, well, redneck or mean-spirited or whatever, I'd have to say you really have to experience such flooding before acting as judge. Once you've stepped out of your neighbor's house into 2-foot deep water because the beavers dammed up the stream behind his property, the patriotic love for these little beasties goes away very, very quickly....

But I should really point out that beavers up here are usually caught via live trap them and relocated rather than shot. The one I tried was an exception and it was on a First Nations Reserve on a special permit.

ScreamingChicken wrote:

CharredGriller wrote:

Actually, no. It tastes more like muskrat, and that tastes a bit like squirrel. And the old-timer recipes I've got normally use the tail in a pot of beans.

No wonder you people suck down the Molson!

No Canadian ever needed an excuse for that......

But the beans were really good too!

Unlike propane, you'll never wake up scorched and naked in another county because you mishandled a bag of briquettes.